Diary of Rock-n-Roll Men

7:50:01 AM EDT
Feeling Exhausted
Hearing Jeremy Camp
Well, things are slowly improving for Lou as she was moved out of ICU and into a regular room. But that's because they took a boat-load of fluid off of her and dialyzed her four days in a row. Her kidneys still don't work and they're still going to have to amputate her other leg as well. But she is still hanging in there. I was visiting with her yesterday and she was pretty miserable because of the pain in her leg. I don't how soon till she is well enough to have it removed. But, once it happens, well, it's a whole new round of rehab and learning to deal with being a double amputee. Lou is not a spring chicken. I'm hoping she'll have the energy to fight and continue to live life... Terri is hanging in there. She found out her gyn/oncologist is moving to Columbus and that there is only one other gyn/onc doc in our city who has a toilet paper roll of a list for patients.So after praying on it, she made the choice to follow her doc and make the commute to Columbus, a 2 and a half hour trip each way for her to be treated, sevral-times a month... Meanwhile, nothing else in the land of Mik is going on right now... The gal pal and her mom and Aunt are off on a shopping trip to Tennessee so I'm going to spend some time with my family. As much as I talk about them here, I don't see them as much as I should. But I hope to get to hang out with them a little bit. Plus, I'd really like to sneak in a little golf somewhere along the way... I miss hitting that little white ball all over the place. It takes my mind off of things and I can laugh about how lousy I am at it...

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10:44:48 PM EDT
Feeling Stressed

My apologies to the Boomtown Rats... But I've gotta tell ya, I've had better days. Lou got rushed to the hospital and is in ICU. She has a ton of problems going on with her and I got a phone call at work today from Terri who was bawling and said that Lou was taking a turn for the worst. I went numb. I got in my car and drove over there. I went into the ICU and was expecting to see a very grim and bleak scene. To my relief, I saw Lou with her eyes open, awake, and alert. They told me that her blood pressure was in the toilet but when I looked at it for myself, I was feeling a bit better. She has got a real long road to go... dialysis, removing fluid from her, and they've made the decision that she's now going to have to lose her other leg too... This whizzes... but I'm trying to keep my thought process on the fact that she can still have a quality of life if they can treat her other issues... Lots of things going on with her... Say a prayer if you could, okay? Thanks. Terri is still trying to deal with her own chemo treatment and couldn't go to the hospital and was torn apart over it... But her immune system is so compromised, that she couldn't afford to catch anything hospital-borne... But I went over and kept her updated. It's wierd. I'm frustated a little bit because it always seems that crap like this happens around my birthday. Let's see... Lou nearly exits stage left in ICU. The anniversary of my dad's passing is tomorrow (wednesday). And here I sit, another year older and sitting in an intesive care unit watching one sister fight for her life and then I see my other sister battle at her home for a shot at life... It's tempting to feel sorry for myself... But I know that my sisters would give me a big crap-burger if I did.... here's a perfect example of Lou letting me know that she's still got plenty of life in her....

The scenario: I'm visiting with her in the morning and I step out so that the nurse's aide can help her with a bath. I'm sitting in the waiting room and Lou's best friend Nan shows up. I talk with Nan and I don't see my kid sister Angie walk by and head into the unit. After a little while, I let Nan go in to the ICU to check on Lou. She sees Angie and they proceed to have the following conversation (as related to me by Angie):

Nan: Hi Angie

Angie: Hi Nan

Nan: So Lou, are you feeling better?

Lou: Mmmm... no, I still hurt. And I'm hungry! Get me some food...

Angie  Don't worry Lou, lunch will be here soon...

Lou: Okay, so Nan, where's my brother?

Nan: He's out in the waiting room.

Lou (to Angie): go get him and tell him I said to get his a** in here.

Angie: Uhhhhhh....

Lou: He said he was here to visit me but he's out there and that's just bullsh**

Angie (shaking like jello, trying not to laugh out loud): okay Lou....

Nan (jaw aptly dropped and could not get words out)

Even the nurses were cracking up about that one... I've got more hope for her at the end of the day than I did at the start.... thanks to her busting my chops.

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7:11:15 AM EDT
Feeling Mellow
Hope everyone is well. Me, it's still crazy but I'm hopeful things will work out as I pray for the best. The girls are still trying to hang in there. They are more durable than the energizer bunny. They (try) to keep going and going and going... you get the idea. Terri's port got plugged up so she had to have another one surgically put in. On the day of the procedure, I go and pick her up at her house for this thing, not saying much cause I didn't know what she'd be thinking about. I figured I'd just play off of whatever she was feeling and roll with it. Well, she gets in my car full of fire and venom. At this point, I'm thinking “uh-oh, what went wrong?” and was preparing for the worst. Anytime I've seen Terri upset, there's usually been a major catastrophe involved. So I'm expecting awful or painful information to hit me between the eyes. When I ask what's up, she barrels into a complete whining session about... about... POLITICS... what the??? I'm over here thinking either she got more bad news about her cancer or something is seriously wrong with Lou... but nooooo... She wants to vent about the election and a bunch of trifle little things that I could care less about. Now for the record, my sister and I are diametrically opposed in our political views. That has never bothered me. We take potshots at each other's issues and it's like a sport with us. She loves to get all worked up and when she does, I start calling her “Norma Rae” from the Sally Field movie and that gets her going even more. She loves to start in on me when I go over to visit her and Lou. She keeps hoping that she'll change my mind and I keep telling her that there will be blizzard warnings in hades before that happens. But we always keep it civil. That's the most important thing. Anyways...

My little sleepy town had it's big city-wide garage sale this past weekend. Part of the Independence Day celebration. We had people that came in from all over to our little plot of real estate and see what deals they could find. I found a computer and monitor (old, but works) for two dollars. We also had the fireworks on Saturday night at the beach where tons of people from different towns came to the lake to see it. The beach was absolutely packed to the gills with humanity. But the folks were all in really good spirits so that really made the whole thing enjoyable. The weirdest thing I saw was people dancing on the beach to the music that the DJ over on the pier was playing. Not that they were dancing. But rather, what they were dancing to... C'mon people... since when do you see 10 and 12-year old kids doing the macarena??? I thought that died a good death back in the 90's where it couldn't disappear fast enough. The funniest thing on the beach was watching people both young and attempting to be young, doing the cha-cha slide and other various forms of line-dancing... in sand!! Let's just say that it's a little tougher to do than it looks. And NO, I wasn't one of the folks out there trying to dance. I was busy watching little kids playing catch with a wiffle ball... I wanted to be out there with them on that... After the fireworks, I walked back over to my house (takes all of 45 seconds or so) and went in and got all ready for bed since I knew I had to get up early for church the next morning. I must've forgotten to pass that little nugget of information onto my neighbors. They were up well into the middle of the night shooting off all different kinds of fireworks and explosives... and the funny part is that we live just down the street from the police station! So I oversleep and wake up less than well rested for church and as I get to my car and get ready to make the 30 minute drive to church, I notice that my car is completely covered in orange and gray powdery soot. It was the residue from all of the fireworks that the folks from the neighborhood shot off in the midnight sky. The street looked like a war zone with all of the leftover and exploded bottle rockets and the other various things. I shook my head in disbelief. I drive quickly to church and just do get there in time for the start and enjoy the service like always. It ministered to my spiritual needs and gave me things to think about as I head into another week of challenges and ups and downs that we all go through, better known as 'daily life'. I left there feeling better about things and when I came and looked at my car, I couldn't help but laugh. I headed for home and stopped at the car wash and my car looked shiny and new afterwards. It was a beautiful day and when I got back home, there were already lots of people at the beach and when I drove down my street, the place had been cleaned up by the city and in the little field across the street from my little house, there were about 6 little kids, under the age of 9, playing baseball. They had one bat, and one ball... no gloves and no bases. I had some old throw down bases that were collecting dust in the trunk of my car, so I immediately got them out and gave them to the kids. You would have thought I gave them gold. They're eyes lit up and they said “you must be a coach or something“... I just smiled and told them to have fun but be careful and I walked back over to my house. I fell asleep but was awakened by my gal pal calling me from Florida where she and her whole family is on vacation. She misses me already... wow, what a novel change from my past relationships. I told her not to worry about me but to just have a great time on the beach and shopping (her two favorite pastimes) and that I'll be busy working (hint: sleeping on the couch) while she's out having a blast. Have a great week y'all, and now if you'll excuse me, I have more, uh, work to do... ;)

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10:22:45 PM EDT
Feeling Listless
Hmmm... just when I think that there is (if nothing else) some peace in my family's world... Yeah, right. It doesn't stop. Went to visit the girls today. Terri was a little nervous because apparently a neighbors dog got out of the yard. I didn't think much of it until I saw the dog... One big mother of a pit bull with an attitude. Apparently, none of the neighbors knew that the new neighbor had a pit bull. So, the cops were called and when the dog finally goes back to the yard where he escaped from, the cop shows up and drives his cruiser right up against the double gate, so as to keep the dog in there. Plus, I was a little uncomfortable because the dog was huge and the fence wasn't very big. But the cop driving the cruiser gets out and comes and asks for some rope to tie the gates closed while we waited for the dog warden to show up. I give him some and the cop looks at me and says "hey, that dog's eyeing you up and down. You'd better watch your a** because he's looking pretty ticked." I smile and say back "yeah, he's thinking all-you-can-eat buffet... y'know what I mean?" The cop started laughing and we waited for an eternity for the warden to show up. The warden shows up finally and we show were the dog was, the fact that it had no tags or license etc..., the warden opts to contain the dog and drag it in to warden's vehicle. And right after that, the owners of the dog show up. They weren't too happy and the cop and dog warden both explained what happened and the fact that there were lots of little children running around in the neighborhood. Not in a rural area... but in the city in a block neighborhood... kids running, playing, riding their bikes... not an ideal place for an overly aggressive pit bull. But with the removal of said dog, maybe the neighbors will settle down a bit and get back to just being annoying... ;)

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8:44:42 AM EDT
Feeling Relaxed
I had to laugh... I was getting ready to interview a couple of the women football players and air it during the halftime of our last regular season game. I turn on my computer and right there on my desktop is a picture of my beloved, my best girl, my love... my gal pal. The player looks at the picture and says "Hey Mik, is that your girlfriend?" I smile and proudly say "Yep, she sure is" and the player says "wow, she's really pretty." I say "thank you" and as I'm preparing to get things going for the interview, this player coughs up a little gem: "Geez, she's really pretty. How did YOU get her?" The other girl football players bust up laughing hysterically and when the player realizes what she said, she freaked and says "oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. " Me, I thought it was funny. It also kept me grounded and not to get egotistical or to take myself seriously. And to be grateful for a great lady for me to love... and even better... she loves ME... woo-hoo!!!

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9:46:53 PM EDT
Feeling Wierd
Hearing the hee-haw monks... (just kidding... I'm not listening to anything)
Greetings from the land of Appalachia... I was asked by my gal pal to go with her to a wedding of a friend she's known since childhood. This friend lives in Colorado but was coming back home to her country roots to get married. She was marrying a guy from out there. The key element to this whole entry is found in the last two words of the previous sentence. Out there. Okay, first things first. I'm a midwesterner and I come from the city and grew up in the hood. Drug dealers, prostitutes, gangs.... you name it. I now live just outside the city in a small area outside of town. I've gotten to discover a little bit of small town life and have come to embrace it. I have learned to have a sense of humor about all things small town. But nothing, I mean NOTHING... prepared me for what I was about to experience. The things I experienced, I've seen before... but the way they were brought together, it had me scratching my head and I was floored. I began to be convinced that perhaps the Second Coming might be arriving a little earlier than I thought... I know I know you're saying “Mik old son, what could possibly be that warped that it freaked you out so bad?”

I'll try and set the scenario in the most positive way possible and try not to sound judgmental. Up in the hills of the western part of Appalachia, in a rural tiny hick town on a small farm. Out in the grass field is where the wedding is going to take place, okay? No big deal, I've been to and shot video for outdoor weddings that took place on a farm. Not a problem. Out by a big tree, the chairs for the people were situated to face the tree which was going to be the focal point of the event. I was able to get my gal pal over there in her wheelchair. I am introduced to all of her friends from her school days and all of them are just knockouts. I mean very very attractive. Even my girlfriend looks at me later on and says “aren't my friends all pretty?” Now right there is a land mine waiting to detonate if ever there was one. Knowing my gal pal, it was an innocent question. But to me (and any guy on the planet), it was one I wasn't about trip over and set off. After all, I am a guy and we are always brought down by questions such as this one. So in an endeavor that required quick thinking and as much energy as my little brain could muster in such a short amount of time, I had to come up with something charming and sincere. Time was the critical element here. Either I took my time to say something thoughtful, and get her wondering if maybe I was taking too long to answer and WHY was I taking so long. OR if I said it too quickly, that maybe I was thinking more about them than I was about her. Thankfully, my radio reflexes came into effect. I took all of three seconds. Perilously close to taking too long, I looked my beloved right in the eye and smiled and said with as much firm warmth as I could muster in such short order: “yeah, I guess... but you're still better looking than any of them. Easily, I got the best of the bunch.” Jackpot! My gal pal got a big grin that lit up the entire place on such a oven-like day outdoors. “I love you” she mouths to me. I return the sentiment and exhale a massive sigh of relief through my teeth and my smile. WHEW! Disaster avoided. I was a little touch and go there for a brief moment. I mean, c'mon, nations have gone to war over questions like this... I don't know how I was able to leap frog this land mine and keep the compass pointing in the right direction, well, actually I do. It was really simple actually... It comes down to one irrefutable fact: I love this woman.

Okay so now back to the wedding... I saw some small children waving bright-colored strips that were on a stick. For some reason, my head began to think of the whole “age of aquarius” naturalist thing and I didn't give it much thought. I began to hear music playing that seemed to come from the general area of the tree. So I looked over in that direction and saw a speaker near the tree. The wedding party began to make their way towards the tree. Everyone seems appropriately dressed. At this point, I'm still thinking that this will be a traditional wedding. The gal pal is chatting with her friends and I'm just taking the whole thing in. Seems nice enough, what could possibly happen out here in the sticks?

Well, uh, as the gal pal and I get settled in to our spots, the music playing is weird. Not as inhippie chants, but rather as in bluegrass banjo. Now in the middle of Appalachia, I would consider this normal. Weird, but normal. Most all of the crowd were in their 20's and 30's. I seen the wedding party walking two by two from the farmhouse over to the tree in the field. The banjo went slightly out of tune and it was only then I realized that there was a real live bluegrass quartet playing behind the tree. As the bridal party make their way to where the tree was, I noticed the guy performing the wedding was listed in the program not as a minister, reverend or preacher. Those are standard bible belt terms. But this guy was called an 'Officiant'. The 'Officiant' welcomed the groom and bride to the tree, (apparently, the tree had no comment) and from the beginning of the ceremony until the end of it, the bride and groom stood facing the gathering with the 'Officiant' standing between them. They chose to have elements of Quaker, Buddhist, and a few other isms that I don't recall. The readings were from some transcendentalist author who said we needed to become 'one' with the trees. To 'breathe in' so as to inhale all of mother nature's goodness. To 'breathe out', so as to release all the irritants that keep us from embracing nature and all it has to offer. HUH???? We came all this way, got all dressed up to come have yoga meditation??? UGH... The entire service was all about referencing nature. The 'Officiant' had on a robe with leafs on the front of it. So once the nuptials were completed (with bluegrass banjos serenading us to the very end), we head over to the big tent to sit down, eat and whatever else the evening may have held. Well, I look over at the steel containers that held the evening's feast. No idea what the meal was going to entail. Pork? Beef? Sassafras Roots? Well, as it turns out, we didn't find out. They had the invocation for the meal where (finally) there was an actual reference to God.... They then proceeded to toast the bride and groom. Now where I'm from, that usually falls to the maid/ matron of honor and the best man to do that. Well, here, virtually EVERYBODY stood in line to toast the new husband and wife. And to make matters worse, the father of the groom decides to insult more than half of the crowd there by making a political joke that was very insulting. Beautiful... UGH... I finally looked over at one of my gal pal's friends and commented “Y'know, I don't think there's really any food over there. They're having everybody toast them so that the rest of us will leave before they eat.” Her response was: “I don't think I could bet against that.” And with that, my gal pal decided that she had enough. We departed the wedding and had a much more satisfying dinner... we went through the drive thru at Dairy Queen for chicken strips and a nice evening together at home. Laughing about what transpired in the afternoon... I wasn't sure what to call this experience... Hillbilly Hippies? Deliverance meets Sex In the City? Pinch of granola between my cheek and gum? Ahh... enough already!!! HA!

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2:22:15 PM EDT
Feeling Giddy

Hey folks,

Sorry it's been a while since my last entry. Lots going on with yours truly. Keeping busy mostly. Was a little under the weather and then my car had a little hiccup but I feel better and the car got fixed so I'm out and about again. Down to one more game left with the women's football team. I like the girls and the coaches both as they are pretty cool people. But I'm tired of sitting through such lopsided losses. The last couple were pretty tough. 76-0 and 41-0... I've got 2 weeks till the last game of the season and then I'm free. woo-hoo! I went and visited my sisters yesterday and of course I was put to work for a little bit. They asked me to put in the air conditioners in the windows so I said sure since it was no big deal. It's been pretty hot around my neck of the woods lately so I can appreciate the desire to remain cool. The breeze off of the lake where I live has helped in dealing with the summer heat. No complaints from me about the temps though. Everybody and their brother come out to the beach and walk along the pier so it's nice to see that there are people who enjoy the water and have fun doing the little things.

P.S. Um, I'm not going to say much about the Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup, but to simply say a big YEAH BABY!!!

P.S.S. That's Red Wing team captain Nick Lidstrom carrying the Stanley Cup in the parade in downtown Detroit where over a million people came out to see their champs... oh by the way, did I mention they won the cup???  YEAH BABY!!!

 

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9:34:36 PM EDT

I'm having a blast watching the Stanley Cup Finals (On NBC in the US, CBC in Canada)... It has been a hoot hearing from some of the Burgers from the steel city. They are convinced that the Penguins are going to come back and win this... I just keep my peace and enjoy watching the series. I hope the Wings wrap things up soon... lol

Other than the sports stuff, not much is going on in my world. Lou is doing better and is supposed to be released from nursing home rehab place on Sunday or Monday. Terri had chemo a couple of days ago and is trying to bounce back. She still is fighting. I don't know how she does it. She is so much braver and stronger than her little brother. I'm not saying that to put myself down, just pointing out obvious facts. Namely she's had to fight this battle on her own, most of the time. She has to try and take care of Lou when Lou is at the house. And Terri somehow is able to do it... I sit in amazement of her. She handles adversity a whole lot better than anyone else I know.

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12:13:36 PM EDT
Feeling Anxious
Okay, just so you know, this entry is a sports entry about the Stanley Cup hockey finals (best of 7)... I am a HUGE Detroit Redwings fan and they are playing the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Cup. I don't like Pittsburgh period. For anything at all... can't stand the Penguins, hate the Steelers, feel embarrassed for the Pirates and am not much for the city as a whole. One of my best friends lives there (and he's from Michigan no less) and we refer to the citizens of Pittsburgh as... well, "burgers" I can't think of a much better way to put it. They think they've already got the Stanley Cup won and are planning for the parade because they have the young phenom Sidney Crosby in their lineup and are supposedly going to dominate. I just smile when I think about it... and then to take things to a mean extreme (not really, but playfully), the Detroit Free Press has a little game you can play on their website called "Whack The Penguin" that is an absolute hoot. Go check it out by clicking here ... But for those of you (peta types) that think somehow that it's a mean game because it involves whacking a penguin (for distance, not to kill) I understand if you pass on it. It's not an anti-animal game but rather an anti-Pittsburgh game.... getting ready for the Stanley Cup finals... Now if you decide to go and give it a few whacks, let me know how far you were able to whack the penguin... My best so far is 322.9

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11:07:41 AM EDT
Feeling Happy
Hey y'all,

I hope you had a decent weekend. Or at least tried to. Me, I got to spend a little quality time with the gal pal. Always a treat for me... We had fun together. I think the reason our relationship is so successful, is because even though we are both crazy about each other, we don't get to see each other all of the time. So the thing we focus on the most when we are together, is each other. Even though she isn't 100% healthy, she is constantly giving me her attention and is far more worried about what's going on with me than I am about myself. Me, I don't think at all about myself when I'm with her. My sole focus is on her. And all this time later, we haven't changed in that behavior. In the beginning, sure the physical attraction to her was great. (okay, it still is... I'm a GUY after all...lol). But as time has passed, the passion and desire goes to what's in the heart and soul. I am amazed over and over again by what I see and feel when I look at her. I went with her to PT and watched her work out. I saw the effort she put into her session and I could see the grit and determination in her face. She made me realize how much I take things for granted without saying one word or even knowing that she was teaching me. All of this was going through my head and in typical fashion, when I told her how proud I was of her effort, she completely downplayed what she was doing. “It's no big deal”. Well, to me it was. It really was. Because sometimes when I am feeling tired or just blah because of work or other areas in my life outside of her, I look at her and I get an instant attitude adjustment. She is younger than I am, but I look up to her... She inspires me more than anyone I know on this earth. Geez, after reading this, you'd think I was in love with the woman or something...lol.. (hint: the worst kept secret on the planet: yes I am)

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